Swod plants

[architect1]

I am wondering how do you full care for a echinodoruse bleheri sword plant.
I bought mine when it was 36 cm high and 36 cm wide. Now its half that but grows new leafs every 3 days. They seem to stay at 18cm high is there anyI can do to get it to grow bigger. In a ph of 7.6 with 2 root tabs rotated ever week. I think it might be the light but don't know. please help.

[Dissident]

Easy to care for.
They will grow in low-very high light
Root feeder (as are al rosette plants)

To get larger growth you will need more light depending on what you currently have. The root tabs are a not 100% needed but will help a lot in health of the plant. What do you men every week you rotate root tabs you add 2 every week? Root tabs should last months before you need to add more. You can burn the roots with too much phosphates.

[architect1]

I see what you mean so i should every month put ina root tab? like there totaly green but there leaves are wavy not streight there dark green. the center sword plant is the one I'm talking about its now half the size it had a runner but I broke it off by accenet.

[Alight]

I'm guessing that the larger plant on the right is fairly recent.

This sword will also change to look more like the other one.

The reason for the change in shape and size of the leaves is that the plants are grown emersed. The leaves have much thicker stalks, and are rounded and much tougher when grown that way. They will become longer and more wavy when grown submerged.

To get larger leaves, do as Dissident said.

[Dissident]

I'm guessing that the larger plant on the right is fairly recent.

This sword will also change to look more like the other one.

The reason for the change in shape and size of the leaves is that the plants are grown emersed. The leaves have much thicker stalks, and are rounded and much tougher when grown that way. They will become longer and more wavy when grown submerged.

To get larger leaves, do as Dissident said.

It takes time for plants to switch over to the submersed form, they will lose their emmersed leaves and send out the submersed form within a month (most swords). It may look like it is dieing which is partly true but not really true at the same time.

[wolfbane]

I have 3 different varieties of swords in my tank, 2 went through this change too, lost the old taller leaves and grew new pretty leaves on shorter stems. The one that didn't do this came from another fanciers tank, its a taller variety (don't know the name) and is popping out of my 30 inch tall tank now. I add root tabs every 3 months.

[chago09]

architect what kinda lights do you have on that tank????

[architect1]

power glo 18000k 15 watt and there 18" and i have 2 of them.

[chago09]

I'm buying a 75 gallon this weekend so i went to home depot to look for light fixtures. I bought a 48" twin strip flourescent light fixture for 36$CDN . Then they had bulbs made for plants and aquariums that were 3000K and 40W. They were only 6.50 a piece. I thought that was a steal and the pet store can screw them selves. My fixture shoots out 80W and 6000K and cost me a total of $50 CDN. I was just wondering what is the best for tanks the kelvin or the watts or the lumens. Like is 6000k enough or do i need more??? also the lumens does that make a difference??? they had other bulbs made for your home that were also 40W but had like 10000k and stuff should i get those or will they burn plants????

[Dissident]

60000-10000K is fine for plants, i like the look of 10K and 6K (together)

60000=yellow

10000=white

10000+=blue good for corals not plants

BTW 3000K+3000K=3000K not 6K
K is just color temperature it does not accumulate like wattage where 40W+40W=80W total


power glo 18000k 15 watt and there 18" and i have 2 of them.
Get new lighting if you want to keep healthy plants, they may live for a few months on stored energy but will die off rather quickley after that. Try to have at least 2 Watts/gal(US) in that 6K-10K range.

[chago09]

if I decide to leave it it 80watts for now should i buy bulbs with a higher K. Something like 6500K cause they had those too.

[chago09]

oh also I read somewhere that it is good to have both. Like 3000K is like a red and If i get one that is like 7000K it is blue. Would one of each actually be more benficial then two 7000k?

[architect1]

so under 10000K is better? 18000k is for coral?

[Dissident]

7000K should not be blue, it will have more blue than 6000K giving a whiter look. 12K+ i believe is getting in the realms of blue.
Even for a long time 10K was considered only for reef tanks but more and more people started using Metal Halide lighting which were normally in 10K and up range. We started having good growth and 10K has become adopted as the highest threshold of color temp for plants. I have read people using 12K with luck but the census in the planted tank hobby is 6K-10K for color temp. Where you want to be in that range is personal preference.

Most of the time there is no need to buy expensive bulbs. At a local green house I picked up some nice 6700K (40w) bulbs for US$6 each, where at my LFS the same bulbs would have ran close to US$30.

If you want to be more technical in picking out lights higher CRI is better 80+ Any PC/MH bulbs I use typically will be in the 90+ range but for standard 40W bulbs I always just go by K, or if it is a 'sunlight' bulb, they will typically have the comparable color frequencies as natural sunlight.